Every fall, I run our first school year assembly for grades K-4 by having a sing-along. This sing-along includes songs that the students have sung in my classroom for years, songs that they learned for concert performances last year, and songs that are current. I try to reach all of the students mixing up songs with the kindergarten favorites from George Cohen’s “Grand Old Flag” to Laurie Berkner’s “I Know a Chicken,” to fourth grade’s favorite current pop songs like JT’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from the upcoming movie, Trolls.

The students love this assembly. They sing along with their teachers and at certain times, dance in their seats. It is one of my favorite assemblies of the school year. To assist me, I hire my good friend who plays drums, which allows me to accompany on piano with simple to complex accompaniments.

Powerpoint/Prezi/Keynote that has the lyrics (if you perform an image google search of the songs, you will find many pre-made powerpoints/picture files of the lyrics so that you do not need to recreate the wheel)

Chord charts of the songs (perform a google search to find these or look in any fake book)

Amy M. Burns is an elementary music educator, clinician, author, and musician. She currently works at Far Hills Country Day School in Far Hills, NJ teaching PreK through Grade 3 general music, grade 5 instrumental music, and grades 4-8 instrumental band. She is the author of Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom, Help! I am an Elementary Music Teacher with a SMART Board, and Help! I am an Elementary Music Teacher with One or more iPads! She is also an author for Online Learning Exchange™ Interactive Music powered by Silver Burdett. She has given numerous presentations on integrating technology into the elementary music classroom as well as being a keynote speaker for music technology conferences in Texas, Indiana, St. Maarten, and Australia. She is the recipient of the 2005 TI:ME Teacher of the Year Award, the 2016 NJ Master Music Teacher Award, the 2016 NJ Governor’s Leader in Arts Education Award, and the 2017 Non-Public School Teacher of the Year Award. You can find out more about Amy at her website: amymburns.com

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